UCFF
Intel's Meteor Lake series of processors has had a drawn-out launch since its details were officially presented in September 2023. The series marks Intel's foray into the consumer market with a tile-based chiplet configuration held together with Foveros packaging. Similar to Tiger Lake, the focus of Meteor Lake has primarily been on the mobile market - ultraportables and notebooks. However, this has not prevented Intel and its partners from introducing it as a follow-up to Raptor Lake-P and Raptor Lake-H in the SFF / UCFF desktop market. ASRock Industrial has consistently been the first to market with ultra-compact form-factor motherboards and mini-PCs, with product announcements coinciding with Intel's launch of its latest and greatest mobile processors. Meteor Lake has not been any different, with the...
Intel’s ‘Frost Canyon’ NUC Revealed: SFF PC w/ Comet Lake
Intel Thailand this week inadvertently disclosed the company’s plans to release its next-generation NUC small form-factor PCs based on Comet Lake processors in the near future. Meanwhile, a store...
19 by Anton Shilov on 11/15/2019SimplyNUC Unveils Sequoia: AMD Ryzen V-Series-Based UCFF PC
SimplyNUC, a maker of ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) PCs, has introduced its first PCs that use AMD’s Ryzen Embedded processors. The Sequoia units are rugged commercial systems designed for applications...
33 by Anton Shilov on 11/14/2019Intel Axes 10nm CPU Based NUC
Intel has notified its partners about plans to discontinue its only 10nm small form factor NUC in the market. The NUC, which went under the code name of Crimson...
18 by Dr. Ian Cutress & Anton Shilov on 11/6/2019HP Unveils Chromebox Enterprise G2: A Chrome OS-Based Business Desktop
Business and enterprise desktops is an interesting market recently - on the one hand, because extended support for Windows 7 nears its end early in 2020, multiple companies are...
39 by Anton Shilov on 10/14/2019ASRock’s 4X4 Box-R1000: A Ryzen-Based 0.87-Liter SFF PC
ASRock has introduced what could be the world’s smallest system based on AMD Ryzen processor. The 4X4 Box-R1000 ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) PC can fit on the palm of a...
22 by Anton Shilov on 7/5/2019Intel’s Islay Canyon Mini NUCs Available: Whiskey Lake, Radeon 540X, 8GB LPDDR3
Several retailers have started sales of Intel’s NUC 8 Mainstream-G systems previously known as codenamed Islay Canyon. The ultra-compact form-factor PCs pack Intel’s 8th Gen Core i5/i7 processors for...
43 by Anton Shilov on 7/1/2019Asetek Launches 645LT: A Miniature Closed-Loop Liquid Cooler
When it comes to enthusiast-class PCs, we have seen two notable trends over the past few years. On the one hand, a significant share of high-performance computers now uses...
13 by Anton Shilov on 4/10/2019Intel's Bean Canyon (NUC8i7BEH) Coffee Lake NUC Review - Ticking the Right Boxes
Intel's NUCs have managed to develop a strong market for ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) machines since they were introduced in the early 2010s. Each CPU generation has seen Intel put...
81 by Ganesh T S on 4/3/2019AAEON's UP Xtreme: A Mini-Single Board Computer with Intel's Whiskey Lake
AAEON has introduced its new single board computer (SBC) that is powered by Intel’s Core i3/i5/i7 ‘Whiskey Lake’ SoCs. The AAEON UP Xtreme is designed for developers of embedded...
12 by Anton Shilov on 3/27/2019EGlobal's NUC-Like PC Packs Intel’s Unlocked Hex-Core i7-8750HK CPU
EGlobal, a PC maker from China, has started sales of its ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) S200 PC. Uncommon for UCFF PCs, EGlobal's latest machines are based around Intel’s 45W laptop...
41 by Anton Shilov on 2/4/2019Gemini Lake SFF PC Showdown: Intel's June Canyon (NUC7PJYH) and ECS's LIVA Z2 Reviewed
Small form-factor PCs have become a major growth segment in the PC market over the last decade. In particular, UCFF (ultra-compact form-factor) PCs have become a welcome and permanent...
61 by Ganesh T S on 12/20/2018ASRock Jupiter: 1 Liter UCFF PCs with Six-Core Coffee-Lake CPUs
ASRock has quietly added a new family of ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) PCs into its product lineup. The Jupiter-series one-liter systems are designed for Intel’s Coffee Lake processors and feature...
21 by Anton Shilov on 9/27/2018IBASE Launches SI-614 SFF PC with NVIDIA’s MXM Graphics
IBASE Technology, a supplier of embedded, industrial, and special-purpose PCs, this week introduced its compact desktop that uses NVIDIA GeForce graphics adapters in MXM Type-B form-factor. Officially, the SI-614...
7 by Anton Shilov on 9/12/2018ECS at CES 2018: LIVA Z2, LIVA Q2 & LIVA One SoC Gemini Lake-Based UCFF PCs
UPDATE 1/12, 2:15 PM ET: Adding MSPRs for the Z2 and Q2 entry-level configs. LAS VEGAS, NV — ECS demonstrated a few of its upcoming ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) PCs based...
6 by Anton Shilov on 1/12/2018Intel NUC6CAYH (Arches Canyon) Apollo Lake UCFF PC Review
Intel has enjoyed great success with their NUC lineup of ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) PCs. They have segmented the NUCs into three markets - the entry-level, mid-range, and enthusiast...
56 by Ganesh T S on 1/12/2018A Budget Home Theater & PC Setup: 4K, HDR, UHD Blu-ray, and More
The days of bulky home-theater PCs (HTPCs) with built-in tuners, optical disc drives, and integrated media storage capabilities are long gone. In 2017, advancements in the media / home...
191 by Ganesh T S on 12/26/2017MSI Launches Fanless Cubi 3 SFF PCs with Kaby Lake-U
MSI has introduced a new family of its ultra-compact form-factor Cubi PCs, based on Kaby Lake-U processors. The Cubi 3 Silent and Cubi 3 Silent S use an entirely...
16 by Anton Shilov on 10/23/2017ECS LIVA Z Plus Kaby Lake vPro UCFF PC Review
Ultra-compact form factor PCs for business deployments have become popular in the recent past. Compared to traditional UCFF PCs, these business use-cases require ease of management and administration by...
12 by Ganesh T S on 4/12/2017ECS LIVA Z Fanless Dual-LAN Apollo Lake UCFF PC Review
The market for UCFF (ultra-compact form factor) PCs has seen tremendous growth since the introduction of the Intel NUCs in early 2013. Various motherboard and system vendors have their...
30 by Ganesh T S on 3/30/2017GIGABYTE GB-BKi7HA-7500 Kaby Lake BRIX Review
The emergence of power-efficient high-performance processors has created a bright spot in the desktop PC market. The ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) heralded by the Intel NUCs has experienced rapid...
32 by Ganesh T S on 3/16/2017